5 Comments

Let me start with my usual rant about playing at altitude. It's a disadvantage, pure & simple. Would not have changed the outcome in this game, but MF addressed it by going deep into the bench early & often to keep players fresh. Unfortunately, the talent thins out fast the further down the bench we get, and this begets turnovers and ill-advised shot selections. Having to play Hyder for 23 minutes really hurt us. He's either not ready (i.e. not his fault), or not capable of PAC-12 level play. He, Brown, Thorpe, & Celestine attempt passes that probably worked in high school, but are ridiculous (i.e. turnovers) at this level. As we will need him on Saturday especially, and for the rest of the season, Hyder needs to restrict himself to open straight up and down jump shots, or uncontested drives.

MF ran a play today (once, unsuccessfully) for Betley that Cal ran as their first play (once, successfully) against UW. He is so good from 3, and has such a quick release, we should be running the offense through him, with multiple sets to get him open 3's.

It's a shame Anticevich has missed time. His fall-away 15-footer had just become deadly. Kelly is becoming a force inside with some nice moves and reliable shots. Between him, Anticevich, Bradley, and running more plays for Betley, we might have contended in the top-half PAC-12 games to come.

Brown has so much potential, but he needs to become a scoring threat. Thiemann is improved but still 2 years away, Kuany was getting some confidence. We have some guys who could be real factors in the PAC-12 by their senior years. Unfortunately, that only puts them on par with the top team's freshman & sophomores.

MF's coaching is not the problem. We need some serious recruits.

Expand full comment

Not a good game for the lads. Surprisingly we had an 18-11 lead in the 1st half. But when the opposing team shoots over 60% on threes your goose is basically cooked, plus Cal went cold and starting turning the ball over in the 2nd half. May also have been elevation-related, e.g., our guys got tired. But the consolation is that we looked really good for the first 10 minutes of the game,

Expand full comment

Sigh. Joel Brown has turned it over 4 times in the 5 minutes I've been watching.

Expand full comment